The Reviews for All About Me Are In…

All About Me, the new musical featuring the talents of Dame Edna and Micheal Feinstein, opened on Broadway last night and the verdict is that the two personalities are simply too dissimilar to pull off a show together. Dame Edna is too large and brash and Feinstein too sweet and traditional; the combination feels forced at best.

Some egos, particularly in this business we call show, are way too big and unruly to share a spotlight. I mean that in the nicest possible way, to use a disclaimer often employed by the great Dame Edna Everage. It is, as it happens, Dame Edna of whom I am speaking. Read the full review.

It’s a joy to have Dame Edna Everage back on Broadway, regardless of the indignities she’s forced to suffer in “All About Me.” After umpteen appearances, Barry Humphries’ monstrously funny incarnation of an Australian housewife run amok on fame and flattery still retains its savage wit. But Christopher Durang and his multiple co-scribes have to answer for the lame idea of teaming up La Belle Dame Sans Merci with the cafe singer and musical jack-of-all-trades, Michael Feinstein. Better Larry the Cable Guy than a musical-theater performer whose sensibility is so at odds with hers. Read the full review.

In the rapidly receding days of early network television, variety hours were regularly scheduled — perhaps the most famous being the 1953 Ford Motor Company’s 50th anniversary show featuring Ethel Merman and Mary Martin sailing through a 13-minute greatest-hits medley. So imagine a show back then pairing Milton Berle, always famous for his drag routines, and chart-topper Eddie Fisher, and you’ve conjured something like the mildly diverting All About Me, a sort of shotgun-wedding teaming of Barry Humphries as ribald Dame Edna Everage and Michael Feinstein as his ebullient self, at the Henry Miller’s Theatre. Read the full review.

Rule number one of theatrical addition is that two stars who are great alone may not be great together. Rule number two is that the chances of rule number one occurring increase exponentially if said stars are as unalike as cake and pi. Proving both dicta is All About Me, which just opened at Henry Miller’s Theatre. It tries to be a two-star show starring Michael Feinstein and Dame Edna Everage, but ends up being two one-star shows. Read the full review.